Goose Banding

[tjwatty]

Today I was invited to "help" with the goose banding at the state park. What an operation, there was about 30 or 40 workers, volunteers and state and I assume federal workers. I had never seen this before and it was really kind of neat to watch. They have a small helicopter that actually herds the molting geese to shore where the workers have fence panels ready to hold them in. From there someone (or 2 or 3) grab them, hand them to another worker, who determines sex, then hands to the next who gets the band and then returns to the water. The whole process lasts less than 10 min and then the convoy is off to where the copter is already herding the next group.
Every group was at least 15 birds and at 4 different locations I saw 2 birds make an escape. Pretty good percentage I thought.
So if any of you get a Giant Canada banded in Knox Co. Illinois this year maybe it was one I saw get his "jewelry"